Department of the Interior Privacy Program

The Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a), enacted in 1974, established controls over what personal information the Federal government collects and how it uses or discloses that information. The Privacy Act has four basic objectives that the Department of the Interior (DOI) is committed to fulfilling to the greatest extent possible:

To restrict disclosure of personally identifiable records maintained by agencies;

To grant individuals increased rights of access to agency records maintained on them;

To grant individuals the right to seek amendment of agency records maintained on themselves upon a showing that the records are not accurate, relevant, timely, or complete; and

To establish a code of "fair information practices" that requires agencies to comply with statutory norms for collection, maintenance, and dissemination of records.

Privacy Act Systems of Records Notices: The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish notice of its systems of records in the Federal Register. This notice is generally referred to as a system of records notice (SORN).